Dare to be human
Go take a look at the web sites or marketing materials for a few extremely large companies. Take your pick — banks, car makers, restaurants, retailers, or manufacturing. Check out their social media postings.
Where are the people? The real people, not the retouched unrelated models portraying the Perfect American Family. With very few exceptions, you won’t find anything that hasn’t been approved by a committee and massaged by a legal team.
It’s simple, obvious point, but it’s worth re-examining once in a while: Human beings are wired to respond most strongly to other human beings. Real, live, messy, imperfect, uncertain, weird, funny, pimply, wonderful real people with real stories to tell.
I’d love to see more brands understand that, and have the guts to get real.
Dare to be human.
Stop aping the 5,000 pound gorillas – you have the very real advantage of being much closer to your audience, and people are loyal to people, not institutions.
• Tell stories to and about real people in your marketing, using real language.
• Have real interactions on social media and in person.
• Make mistakes, fix them, and apologize.
• Let your people be people.
• Blow up your punitive social media policy, banish market-speak, and abolish fine print.
And would it kill you to crack a joke once in a while?
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